How to Sell a House Online

Online real estate auctions are very popular, especially house auctions. When selling a house, make sure you have a strong online presence. The more people see your house, the better your chances of sealing the deal. Selling your house online, however, can be a little tricky. You need some smart planning, some shrewd decision-making, and some time-tested strategizing to draw prospective buyers to your home. Here are 5 tips to sell your house online faster.

1. Advertise your home for sale on social networking sites.

If you use social networking sites and have a lot of followers, marketing your house on these platforms are great outlets to market your house. There are neighborhoods that maintain social media groups where you can post the house you’re selling.

2. Get professional help.

Utilizing professionals to take care of some of the services usually covered by real estate agents can ease the process for you.

While looking at comparable homes in the neighborhood, you may want to hire a professional appraiser to help you set the right listing price for your home. After all, what’s the point of saving $15,000 on a real estate agent, if you undervalue your home by $20,000?

3. Make your photos “pop!”

Unless you’re one of the lucky ones, grainy digital photos will not get the job done of selling your house. One look at FSBO and other real estate websites will tell you that several high-quality, professional-grade photographs of listed homes are now the standard.

Here is another investment worth making. If you doubt your photography skills, hire a professional to take pictures for your home listings. When you decide to take the photos yourself, take the time to ensure proper lighting, clarity, and scale for your pictures. Staging each room helps a lot when selling a house. This inspires home buyers to picture themselves living in the house.

4. Add to the “wow factor.”

Great photos are critical to most online home sales, but often other types of visuals work best for other home buyers. You want the person looking at the listing to be able to visualize him/herself living in the house while sitting on his/her couch or desk chair.

Good options for enhancing your online advertisement include: professional-grade videos of the home or a 3-D video tour. Add area maps, include drone photos, a detailed 3-D floor plans, and virtual staging, which allows potential buyers to visualize a room with various furniture and accessory set-ups.

Access to such features should be a part of your package with a paid FSBO site. Browse the listings of different sites and decide which provides the best combination of extras that will enhance your home’s appeal.

5. Set the right price for

As mentioned elsewhere in this article, hiring an appraiser to help determine the right sale price for your home can add thousands to your pocket or prevent you from overvaluing your home and delaying any sale.

The appraiser will offer his/her professional opinion on the home’s value, but it is of course up to you to set the initial price and determine the minimum you will accept.

Even if you aren’t the sharpest negotiator, it makes sense to ask for a bit more than your target price. Depending on the value of your house, you can ask up to $10,000-$20,000 more. These sets things up so that the inevitable counter-offer will bring you in line your target price.

The more pressure you are under to sell, the more flexible you’ll have to be with the price you’ll accept. But try to stick to a floor price, especially if you’re conducting an auction or direct cash sale to avoid regretting selling too low.